Heroes of Arkesia,
There have been exciting moments on the battlefield in the race against Kazeros, along with dramatic moments off of the battlefield, but the time to open The First Mode to a wider group of players has arrived. We previously announced that after the top 10 teams in each region have been identified, the next weekly maintenance will unlock the First After Race, an ongoing mode where players can compete for class-based leaderboards based around clear time. Unfortunately, due to our version of Lost Ark having multiple regions, we cannot open the after race separately in the regions, it needs to be done at the same time.
We’ve seen many requests from players who want to experience The First Mode, but want the damage increase that Ark Grid provides to help ease the difficulty slightly. While North America has the Top 10 locked in, there are still a few slots open in Europe. We will be giving the European region until the next maintenance to vie for the remaining leaderboard spots. The race will officially end, regardless of the number of eligible teams who have cleared, when weekly maintenance begins on December 24.
During that maintenance, we will enable the First After Race, along with the ability for the Ark Grid system to be used in Kazeros The First. This will allow a wider range of players to attempt this special difficulty, and we’re also excited to see the beginning of the in-game leaderboards. Heroes at the top of leaderboard each week will earn temporary cosmetics, and those at the top when The First Mode ends (date to be determined) will earn the cosmetics (such as an insignia and class symbol) in perpetuity. The Ark Grid will become enabled for this mode.
As a reminder, disqualifications are based solely on violations of the five conditions we set forth for the race as well as our Code of Conduct and Terms of Service, not player reports or leaderboard positioning. Our review process involves multiple independent team members examining account behavior, transaction patterns, and gameplay data. We do not discuss specific cases publicly, but all disqualifications are supported by clear evidence of policy violations.
Congratulations to those who have participated in an eligible clear, and good luck players in the European Region this week! We have the cosmetic items ready for 1st - 6th place winners in North America, along with 1st - 5th place winners in Europe, and we will be distributing them this week. The rest of the custom rewards will be prepared in the coming weeks as we await the final week of clears in Europe, and will be distributed in early to mid January.
Thanks for your support, and we’ll see you in Arkesia.